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Sarah Szanton: Faculty Directory

Sarah L. Szanton, PhD, RN

FAAN
Professor
Dean
Patricia M. Davidson Professor for Health Equity and Social Justice
Sarah Szanton
410-955-7544
View Full CV

Specialties and Expertise

  • Aging
  • Chronic Care
  • Community
  • Community / Public Health
  • Disparities
  • Family
  • Gerontological / Geriatric
  • Gerontology
  • Interprofessional
  • Loneliness
  • Pain/Symptom Management
  • Social Determinants of Health/Poverty

Overview

Sarah Szanton is the fifth dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

A number of years ago, while making house calls as a nurse practitioner to homebound, low-income elderly patients in West Baltimore, Dr. Szanton noticed that their environmental challenges were often as pressing as their health challenges. Since then she has developed a program of research at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing on the role of the environment and stressors in health disparities in older adults, particularly those trying to “age in place” or stay out of a nursing home. The result is a program called CAPABLE, which combines handyman services with nursing and occupational therapy to improve mobility, reduce disability, and decrease healthcare costs. She has tested the program's effectiveness through grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Innovations Office at the Center on Medicaid and Medicare Services. She has major funding from the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation to build infrastructure for the CAPABLE program. She has also conducted a study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, of whether food and energy assistance improve health outcomes for low-income older adults. A former health policy advocate, Dr. Szanton aims her research and publications toward changing policy for older adults and their families.

Additional Resources

Below are selected resources. For more information, please see full CV.

  • Videos

     

     

     

     

     

  • Publications/Research

    Hladek, M., Gill, J. M., Lai, C., Bandeen-Roche, K., Xue, Q.-L., Allen, J., Leyden, C., Kanefsky, R., Szanton, S. L. (2021). High Social Coping Self-Efficacy Associated with Lower Sweat Interleukin-6 in Older Adults With Chronic Illness. Journal of Applied Gerontology. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648211006518

    Liu, M., Xue, Q., Samuel, L., Gitlin, L.N., Guralnik, J., Leff, B., Szanton, S.L. (2020). Improvements of disability outcomes in CAPABLE older adults differ by financial strain status. Journal of Applied Gerontology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/0733464820975551.

    Davidson, P.M., Szanton, S.L. (2020) Nursing Homes and COVID-19: We can and should do better. Journal of Clinical Nursing.

    Samuel, L.J., Szanton, S.L., Fedarko, N.S., Simonsick, E.M., (2020). Leveraging naturally occurring variation in financial stress to examine associations with inflammatory burden among older adults. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. 74:892-897.

    Szanton, S.L., Clemson, L., Liu, M., Gitlin, L. N., Hladek, M. D., LaFave, S. E., Roth, D. L., Marx, K. A., Felix, C., Okoye, S. M., Zhang, X., Bautista, S., Granbom, M. (2020). Pilot Outcomes of a Multicomponent Fall Risk Program Integrated into Daily Lives of Community-Dwelling Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology.

    Szanton, S.L., Clemson, L., Liu, M., Gitlin, L. N., Hladek, M. D., LaFave, S. E., Roth, D. L., Marx, K. A., Felix, C., Okoye, S. M., Zhang, X., Bautista, S., Granbom, M. (2020). Pilot Outcomes of a Multicomponent Fall Risk Program Integrated Into Daily Lives of Community-Dwelling Older Adults. Journal of Applied Gerontology. doi: 1177/0733464820912664.

    Szanton, S.L., Xue, Q., Leff, B., Guralnik, J., Wolff, J.L., Tanner, E.K., Boyd, C.M., Thorpe, R.J., Bishai, D., Gitlin, L.N., (2019). Reducing Disability Through a Bio-Behavioral Environmental Approach: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial. (Epub ahead of print.) JAMA Internal Medicine. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6026

  • Awards/Honors

    2021   Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

    2019   Human Condition, Heinz Foundation

    2019   Sigma Theta Tau, International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame

    2017   Edgerunner Award, American Academy of Nursing

    2016   Senior Service America Senior Scholar Award for Research Related to Disadvantaged Older Adults—Gerontological Society of America and Senior Service America, Inc.

    2016   Top 50 “Influencers in Aging”—Next Avenue

    2015   Baltimore Business Journal Health Care Innovator award

    2015   Fellow, Gerontological Society of America

    2015   Visiting Fellow, University of Sydney, Australia, June 28-July 5, 2015

    2015   Emerging Edgerunner Award—American Academy of Nursing

    2014   Co-recipient of Protégé Award—Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research